Dear Church Family,
We are delighted to announce that we are now able to begin gathering on the lawn with our entire congregation! In order to protect our membership and to maintain a good testimony in our community (see below for a fuller explanation on this point), we will need to practice some basic social distancing measures:
1. Family units will need to sit at least six feet apart. As we do for church on the lawn, you will need to bring your own seating. If you have a sun-shade available, you may wish to bring it with you.
2. Masks will need to be worn by all attendees (apart from very young children) at all times when they are outside of their vehicles. It is important to recognize that the purpose of masks is not to protect the wearer (which they do very poorly) but to hinder transmission to others (which, arguably, they can provide some help with).
3. For those who, because of greater risk factors or for any other reason, would prefer to remain in their vehicles, we will have a limited number of parking spots with at least some visibility of the platform and will continue to make the radio station available. If you have a portable radio, you may wish to bring it to help amplify the sound system.
If there is a strong chance of rain, we will have a drive-in service as we have the past several weeks. We will make the call on this on Saturday night. If we do end up having a drive-in service, those who wish to do so may set up lawn chairs in the pavilion, while observing the social distancing measures indicated above.
We have been so encouraged by the faithfulness that so many of you have shown during this difficult season and look forward to worshipping the Lord together with you all!
For His Glory,
The Pastors of Westside Baptist Church
*A significant number of church gatherings that failed to practice appropriate precautions have become “super-spreader” events, leading to a large number of additional cases in their area. While the possibility of this happening is remote, it would cause enough harm to our long-term witness in the community that we are determined to do everything we can to avoid it.
